Scotland has done what must be done. Cricket Scotland has announced that it will not arrange bilateral matches or any other cricket engagement with Afghanistan outside ICC events, citing the Taliban regime’s treatment of women and girls and the wider human rights situation in the country. The board has made clear it will face Afghanistan only when required by the ICC, and that this position stands until there is a material change for Afghan women’s cricket and human rights. You cannot shake hands on the field while the Taliban regime bans Afghan girls from schools, work, and stadiums. Sports cannot be blind to apartheid.
The Afghan Taliban regime’s atrocities against women are not an internal matter. Since 2021, women and girls have been barred from sports and gyms, and the Afghanistan women’s team was disbanded, with several players forced to flee the country. Banning education, employment, and sports for women is gender apartheid, and the world is finally calling it what it is.
This is not against the Afghan players. It is against the regime they are forced to represent. The players are talented, and Scotland itself has said it will continue honouring obligations to players and may still issue NOCs for league participation. But the flag they play under today represents a system that treats half its population as invisible.
The international community is raising the right voice at the right time. First Australia, which has repeatedly postponed bilateral series against Afghanistan, then England, whose board refuses to approve bilateral matches outside ICC events, and now Scotland has taken a principled position. This moral boycott isolates the Taliban, not Afghanistan.
You cannot have a men’s team celebrating victories while no women’s team is allowed to exist. Afghanistan remains the only ICC Full Member without a women’s team, despite being granted Full Member status in 2017 without meeting the requirement to fund women’s cricket. Cricket must stand for equality, and Cricket Scotland has upheld the spirit of the game.
If the Taliban want international legitimacy and international matches, they must restore the basic rights of Afghan women. Until then, such boycotts are the only language the regime understands.
SAT Commentaries, a collection of insightful social media threads on current events and social issues, featuring diverse perspectives from various authors.
SAT Commentary
SAT Commentaries, a collection of insightful social media threads on current events and social issues, featuring diverse perspectives from various authors.
Scotland has done what must be done. Cricket Scotland has announced that it will not arrange bilateral matches or any other cricket engagement with Afghanistan
According to Foreign Office, Pakistan and the United States have agreed to promote closer exchanges between think tanks and academic institutions to deepen mutual understanding
French MEP Mounir Satouri has laid bare a troubling inconsistency in Europe’s approach to Afghanistan. While Brussels publicly refuses to recognise the Taliban, a number
On 8 November 2026, the Houthi militia launched yet another attack on Saudi Arabia. Falling shrapnel from intercepted missiles damaged several floors of a Saudi
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Scotland Shows The Taliban A Red Card For Erasing Afghan Women
Scotland has done what must be done. Cricket Scotland has announced that it will not arrange bilateral matches or any other cricket engagement with Afghanistan outside ICC events, citing the Taliban regime’s treatment of women and girls and the wider human rights situation in the country. The board has made clear it will face Afghanistan only when required by the ICC, and that this position stands until there is a material change for Afghan women’s cricket and human rights. You cannot shake hands on the field while the Taliban regime bans Afghan girls from schools, work, and stadiums. Sports cannot be blind to apartheid.
The Afghan Taliban regime’s atrocities against women are not an internal matter. Since 2021, women and girls have been barred from sports and gyms, and the Afghanistan women’s team was disbanded, with several players forced to flee the country. Banning education, employment, and sports for women is gender apartheid, and the world is finally calling it what it is.
This is not against the Afghan players. It is against the regime they are forced to represent. The players are talented, and Scotland itself has said it will continue honouring obligations to players and may still issue NOCs for league participation. But the flag they play under today represents a system that treats half its population as invisible.
The international community is raising the right voice at the right time. First Australia, which has repeatedly postponed bilateral series against Afghanistan, then England, whose board refuses to approve bilateral matches outside ICC events, and now Scotland has taken a principled position. This moral boycott isolates the Taliban, not Afghanistan.
You cannot have a men’s team celebrating victories while no women’s team is allowed to exist. Afghanistan remains the only ICC Full Member without a women’s team, despite being granted Full Member status in 2017 without meeting the requirement to fund women’s cricket. Cricket must stand for equality, and Cricket Scotland has upheld the spirit of the game.
If the Taliban want international legitimacy and international matches, they must restore the basic rights of Afghan women. Until then, such boycotts are the only language the regime understands.
SAT Commentary
SAT Commentaries, a collection of insightful social media threads on current events and social issues, featuring diverse perspectives from various authors.
SAT Commentary
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